Cloning and Functional Analysis of Pax6 from the Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae

PLoS One

Lirong Yang¹  Linlin Ke¹  Huifang Yuan¹  Changkun Pan¹  Jianming Chen¹  Wei Wang¹  Bin Hu¹  Mingliang Chen² 

[1] Key Laboratory of Marine Biogenetic Resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China;School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

关键词: Eyes;    Paired box;    Apoptosis;    Drosophila melanogaster;    Phenotypes;    Sequence motif analysis;    Homeobox;    Transcription factors;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.pone.0168579

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

The paired box 6 (Pax6) gene encodes a transcription factor essential for eye development in a wide range of animal lineages. Here we describe the cloning and characterization of Pax6 gene from the blind hydrothermal vent tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae (RpPax6). The deduced RpPax6 protein shares extensive sequence identity with Pax6 proteins from other species and contains both the paired domain and a complete homeodomain. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that it clusters with the corresponding sequence from the closely related species Platynereis dumerilii (P. dumerilii) of Annelida. Luciferase reporter assay indicate that RpPax6 protein suppresses the transcription of sine oculis (so) in D. melanogaster, interfering with the C-terminal of RpPax6. Taking advantage of Drosophila model, we show that RpPax6 expression is not able to rescue small eye phenotype of ey2 mutant, only to cause a more severe headless phenotype. In addition, RpPax6 expression induced apoptosis and inhibition of apoptosis can partially rescue RpPax6-induced headless phenotype. We provide evidence RpPax6 plays at least two roles: it blocks the expression of later-acting transcription factors in the eye development cascade, and it promotes cell apoptosis. Our results indicate alternation of the Pax6 function may be one of the possible causes that lead the eye absence in vestimentiferan tubeworms.

【 授权许可】

CC BY